History of Earth - High School

You'll get a big bang out of this list of terms related to the history of Earth. Review the origins of the solar system, geological eras and epochs, plate tectonics and continental drift, paleontology and evolution, and more.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. Archean
    relating to the eon from about 4.0 to 2.5 billion years ago
  2. asteroid
    a small celestial body composed of rock and metal
  3. bed
    (geology) a stratum of rock (especially sedimentary rock)
  4. big bang theory
    (cosmology) the theory that the universe originated sometime between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago from the cataclysmic explosion of a small volume of matter at extremely high density and temperature
  5. Cambrian
    the geologic period from about 541 to 485 million years ago
  6. canyon
    a ravine formed by a river in an area with little rainfall
  7. Carboniferous
    from 345 million to 280 million years ago
  8. Cenozoic
    the current geologic era, starting about 66 million years ago
  9. climate change
    a shift in the world's average weather and temperature
  10. continent
    one of the large landmasses of the earth
  11. continental drift
    the gradual movement of very large land masses
  12. crater
    a bowl-shaped geological formation at the top of a volcano
  13. Cretaceous
    the geologic period from about 145 to 66 million years ago
  14. crust
    the outer layer of the Earth
  15. decay
    the organic phenomenon of rotting
  16. Devonian
    relating to the period from about 419 to 359 million years ago
  17. earthquake
    vibration from underground movement along a fault plane
  18. Eocene
    relating to the epoch from about 56 to 34 million years ago
  19. eon
    the longest unit of geological time
  20. epoch
    a unit of geological time that is divided into ages
  21. era
    a major division of geological time
  22. erosion
    the process of wearing or grinding something down
  23. eruption
    the sudden occurrence of a violent discharge
  24. evolution
    sequence of events involved in the development of a species
  25. extinction
    the state of being no longer in existence
  26. fault
    a crack in the earth's crust resulting from displacement
  27. fossil
    the remains of a plant or animal from a past geological age
  28. geologic
    of or relating to the study of Earth and its structure
  29. geology
    science of the history of the earth as recorded in rocks
  30. Hadean
    the first geologic eon, from about 4.6 to 4.0 billion years ago
  31. half-life
    the time required for something to fall to half its initial value (in particular, the time for half the atoms in a radioactive substance to disintegrate)
  32. Holocene
    relating to the epoch from about 11,700 years ago to the present
  33. ice age
    a period when glaciers cover much of the Earth's surface
  34. igneous
    produced by the action of fire or intense heat
  35. index fossil
    a fossil known to have lived in a particular geologic age that can be used to date the rock layer in which it is found
  36. Jurassic
    the geologic period from about 201 to 145 million years ago
  37. Mesozoic
    the geologic era from about 252 to 66 million years ago
  38. metamorphic
    having undergone transformation by pressure, heat, etc.
  39. meteorite
    a stony or metallic object from space that hits the earth
  40. microfossil
    a very tiny impression left by an organism from a past geological age
  41. Miocene
    relating to the epoch from about 23 to 5.3 million years ago
  42. mountain chain
    a series of hills or mountains
  43. ocean floor
    the bottom of a sea or ocean
  44. Oligocene
    relating to the epoch from about 34 to 23 million years ago
  45. Ordovician
    relating to the period from about 485 to 444 million years ago
  46. paleontology
    the earth science that studies fossil organisms
  47. Paleozoic
    relating to the era from about 541 to 252 million years ago
  48. Pangaea
    (plate tectonics) a hypothetical continent including all the landmass of the earth prior to the Triassic period when it split into Laurasia and Gondwanaland
  49. period
    a unit of geological time when a system of rocks formed
  50. Permian
    the geologic period from about 299 to 252 million years ago
  51. petrifaction
    the process of turning some plant material into stone
  52. Phanerozoic
    relating to the eon from about 541 million years ago to the present
  53. plate
    a rigid layer of the Earth's crust
  54. plate tectonics
    the movement or study of the movement of Earth's crust
  55. Pleistocene
    relating to the epoch from about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago
  56. Pliocene
    relating to the epoch from about 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago
  57. Precambrian
    the vast span of time from about 4.6 billion to 541 million years ago
  58. prehistoric
    belonging to or existing before recorded times
  59. Proterozoic
    relating to the eon from about 2.5 billion to 541 million years ago
  60. Quaternary
    relating to the period from about 2.6 million years ago to the present
  61. radiocarbon dating
    an analysis used to determine the age of organic materials
  62. radioisotope
    a radioactive isotope of an element
  63. ridge
    a long narrow natural elevation or striation
  64. sedimentary
    formed by or containing the accumulation of deposited matter
  65. sedimentary rock
    rock formed from consolidated clay deposits
  66. Silurian
    relating to the period from about 444 to 419 million years ago
  67. solar system
    the sun with the celestial bodies that revolve around it
  68. stratum
    one of several parallel layers of material
  69. superposition
    (geology) the principle that in a series of stratified sedimentary rocks the lowest stratum is the oldest
  70. time scale
    an arrangement of events used as a measure of duration
  71. Triassic
    the geologic period from about 252 to 201 million years ago
  72. volcanism
    the phenomena associated with volcanic activity
  73. volcano
    a fissure in the earth's crust through which gases erupt
Created on Tue Feb 14 15:33:02 EST 2017 (updated Wed Apr 12 15:16:07 EDT 2017)

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